Rabbi Avi Weiss wrote an excellent article titled “J’Accuse,” meaning “I accuse,” after the words of a courageous writer named Émile Zola, who accused the French of committing a terrible travesty by convicting and imprisoning Jewish French soldier Alfred Dreyfus for treason in 1894. He called for the country to do some introspection regarding the travesty it had wrought upon an innocent Jew.
In his article, Rabbi Weiss cries “J’Accuse” against Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his despicable accusations of genocide and starvation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rabbi Weiss goes on to list a whole host of other hateful statements made by Mamdani against the Jewish people.
Mamdani’s libelous diatribe against not just Netanyahu but the entire IDF and the people of Israel whom it represents was a factor that immediately resulted in a Muslim stabbing a Jew on the Upper West Side while yelling “Allahu Akbar” during his pursuit.
No doubt, Mamdani is fulfilling our worst nightmares about his anti-Semitism and his hatred for Israel. But the question is, what can we do about it? It looks like he has a built-in base that adores him, and that is evident from the sweeping victories of three of his hand-picked primary candidates.
The sad truth is that there is not much we can do about it. We can scream all we want, but he remains the New York City mayor, at least for the next four years or so.
What we can do is beat the drums so that perhaps some of his constituency will wake up to the havoc that he has brought to New York City – not just his anti-Semitism, but also his tax-the-wealthy scheme, which is only serving to drive successful businesspeople away from New York.
Perhaps the 30 percent of Jews who voted for him will begin to see things differently during the next election. Unfortunately, however, those Jews are so blinded that they will vote for him even at their own peril. And it is sickening to see Neturei Karta hoisting banners that declare Mamdani a good friend of the Jews. It seems that Jews have a propensity to see things through an inverted lens.
It is encouraging to see that some secular organizations, such as the American Jewish Congress and the ADL, are not letting Mamdani off the hook. They have been outspoken in their criticism of the mayor. Alan Dershowitz, who is livid about Mamdani, is promising to assemble 100,000 Jews to greet Netanyahu when he arrives to address the UN. That would be quite an accomplishment, although I’ve seen Dershowitz fail to deliver on previous promises, such as his declaration that he would bring a lawsuit against Christiane Amanpour for her remarks that the Dee family was killed in a “shootout,” when it was clearly a case of Arab terrorists on a murder spree. I haven’t seen anything about that lawsuit.
So we can cry “J’Accuse,” but unlike in the Dreyfus case, there does not seem to be much remorse from the Mamdani camp. However, we must keep up the pressure. Who knows? It just may pay off someday.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.